Three Reasons I Don’t Always Point My Toes

I get it. Pointed toes create beautiful lines and fully complete a trick. The make the move or transition graceful, elegant and complete.

But I don’t always point my toes. Actually, I kind of suck at it. And below, are three reasons why.

Pointed Toes Do Not Come Naturally To Me

This sounds like a cop out and I guess it is. But pointed toes truthfully just feel so foreign to me! I was never a dancer growing up, or graceful for that matter 😛 nor have I ever really worked on pointing my toes. Therefore, I suck at it. To top it off, a lot of exercises I keep in my programs require flexed feet. Deadlifts, back extensions, squats, reverse hyper extension.. the list goes on.

And while I know what you’re thinking ” uh, just train for it” (which yes, that would be the logical thing to do), I simply just don’t care enough. Life is busy enough without adding yet another thing into my programs. And truthfully, I don’t care if I look perfectly poised while I pole. So truth be told, it’s just not my biggest goal.

My Main Focus Is To Not Face Plant

I’ve been pole dancing for almost a decade now but that doesn’t mean pole is easy. In fact, it’s actually still pretty challenging. Which means, that while I’m dancing or learning a new trick my main goal is to not fall on my face. If you read through point one you’ll know that pointing my toes doesn’t come naturally, it’s something I have to actively do. Unfortunately, half the time I am actively doing other things like figuring out which muscles to contract, what comes next, how to untangle myself.

Thus, my mind is pretty occupied already without the whole toe point thing. Do toes make a routine look prettier? Definitely. Will it make or break me in life? Probably not.

Old Injuries & Tightness

Having injured my ankles a couple of times now (mainly when I was younger but once recently), while I can point my toes it’s actually not easy. Couple that with a tight calf muscles and again, I need to focus to do it. While my muscles can contract, because they are slightly tight my range definitely sucks. So again, I’m not great with plantar flexion.

We all have our strengths just as we all have our weaknesses. I’m pretty happy with my abilities on the pole and truth be told, it’s not the end of the world to me if my feet are not perfectly pointed throughout my entire routine. While I can definitely appreciate the elegance of pointed toes please understand that not every dancer strives for perfection. Some of us are just going through the journey and loving all the stops.